John M. Tobin's research while affiliated with Dublin City University and other places

... Given the ability of melanin to bind to metals and degrade exotic carbohydrates, black rock fungi could be good candidates for environmental bioremediation in contaminated sites with heavy metals and radionuclides, for example, to absorb or remove harmful volatile chemicals in decorated rooms (Prenafeta-Boldú et al. 2019) or to clean up industrial effluent with radioactive contamination (Singleton and Tobin 1996). ...

... Cosmetic ingredients pose one significant ecological problem compared to other widely spread categories, such as health & pharmaceutical products; the reason behind this is their wide and uncontrolled usage by people worldwide (Gkika et al., 2022). Heavy usage connects with heavy discharge by washing and bathing; water will be the primary medium for its transformation through WWTP, soil, water streams, and different water levels (Deegan et al., 2011;Díaz-Cruz et al., 2009). Cosmetic elements such as butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA) are regularly used as preservatives in several food items and as antioxidants in medicinal products. ...

... It is well known that the pharmaceutical compounds are non-biodegradable, affecting ecological imbalance and biological functions. Furthermore, a high content of pharmaceutical chemicals in surface water [1], drinking water [2][3][4], sewage influent [5], hospital waste [6] and industrial effluents [1,4,7,8] has been reported, and generate new resistant bacteria implicating the microbial activity [9]. For example, the removal of carbamazepine by microbial treatment is difficult because of its bacterial resistance [10], causing an environmental issue [4,[11][12][13][14] and it is same for paracetamol, carbamazepine, diclofenac, and ibuprofen as classified as hazardous chemicals [15]. ...

... APAP is also an emerging environmental endocrine disruptor that is likely to pose a threat to the environment and human health [3,4]. APAP is difficult to remove using traditional bio-treatment processes due to its stable chemical structure [5,6]. ...

... Total accumulation of chromium in yeast cells was determined by ETAAS after carrying out a series of 12-h cultivations in the medium containing different chromium compounds in amounts which did not inhibit yeast growth (1 mM Cr(III) and 20 µM Cr(VI)), which was followed by the washing step with phosphate buffer in order to remove loosely bound chromium from yeast cell surface (Blackwell et al. 1999;Demirci & Pometto 2000) and by HNO 3 treatment. ...

... Almost all of these works present a batch approach for the experiments, however, most of them did not present the performance of the materials to be reused in cycles after regeneration steps. Bhattacharyya et al. [9], Haque et al. [31], and Starosud et al. [67] developed TiO 2 -zeolite materials for integrated photocatalytic adsorption operations, while Basha et al. [7], Chollom et al. [18], and Keane et al. [34] immobilized TiO 2 on activated carbon materials for the same purpose. Some works report the use of metal oxides such as SnO 2 [49], Bi 2 O 4 [42], NiFe 2 O 4 [24], and Nb 2 O 5 [68]. ...

... In highly acidic solutions, it is known that HCrO 4 − and Cr 2 O 7 2− ions prevail among Cr(VI) species [68]. Hydronium ions that surround the surface of the adsorbent at extremely low pH levels assist Cr(VI) in attaching to the adsorbent's binding sites due to their increased force of attraction. ...

... One of the major components of shrimp shell is chitin, which constitutes 16%-20% of raw shrimp shell [48]. Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature after cellulose, has a high sorption capacity that is associated with the presence of -OH and N-acetyl groups; it has been widely studied for the removal of various pollutants [49]. The present study aims to characterize the Fe/ZnO-shrimp shell nanocomposite using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) through energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) to investigate dye removal at different adsorbent dosages, initial pH, dye initial concentration, and contact time. ...

... The chemical or physical adsorption mechanism is often an essential indicator in describing adsorption kinetics and adsorbent-pollutant interactions (Guibal et al. 2003;. Furthermore, comprehension of the sorption mechanism plays a vital role in determining rate-limiting steps, optimal sorption conditions, and design purposes Subhan et al. 2021). ...

... And some type of isothiazolinones was also detected by gas chromatography and Raman spectroscopy on glass surface (Sohn et al. 2023). These phenomena would significantly increase the threat to human health (Murphy et al. 2012). Several traditional strategies, including physical or chemical adsorption and biological treatment, have been employed to eliminate antibiotic contamination for many years. ...